• Account of a little-known but highly significant episode of WW2, now available in English for the first time• Written by a first-hand witness of events, the head of French Secret Services in WW2• The full story of Hans-Thilo Schmidt, a French spy at the very heart of the Third Reich• Showcases the role of other European countries in the race to decode the Enigma machine

Ten
years after the publication of his Services Spéciaux (1935-1945),
Paillole took up his pen once again in order to shed further light on
the critical role that the French Secret Service played in the
infiltration of German agencies. In this first English edition of The
Spy in Hitler's Inner Circle, Paillole brings us to the very heart of
the world of espionage and counterintelligence, providing unique insight
into the key figures that led to the decoding of the Enigma machine at
Bletchley and the ultimate collapse of Hitler's Third Reich, most
notably through Hans-Thilo Schmidt, France's German spy embedded in the
very heart of the Third Reich.In compelling narrative style
Paillole details how Schmidt delivered intelligence to France right from
the source of the German Cipher Office. Schmidt, whose brother Rudolf
occupied one of the highest postings in the Third Reich, commander of
2nd Panzer Army in Russia, created an intelligence network between
France, Poland and England, and successfully transmitted crucial details
about Hitler's strategic plans. From information about Germany's
rearmament and the reoccupation of the Rhineland, to fundamental
technical intelligence about the Enigma machine, Schmidt's contributions
are key to the Allied victory in the intelligence war, despite the fact
that France largely ignored his communications.Revealed here
are the most secret aspects of the ‘secret war,' the ‘war of numbers.'
Paillole also sheds further light on the interaction of secret agents
working inside the German government, bringing attention to the
cooperation between the French, English and Polish agencies surrounding
the challenges of decoding the Enigma machine. We learn the innermost
details of the roles that men such as Gustave Bertrand, Rudolphe
Lemoine, and Richard Sorge played in this dramatic history and
ultimately the pivotal role that Bletchley's Alan Turing was able to
perform as a result.Paillole brings renewed focus onto one of
the most important espionage affairs of the war, revealing new aspects
of the participation of Enigma during the decisive phases of the Second
World War: the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of
the Atlantic, the Battle of Libya and the Battle of Normandy.